Microfluidic and Paper-Based Devices for Disease Detection and Diagnostic Research

Abstract

Recent developments in microfluidic devices, nanoparticle chemistry, fluorescent microscopy, and biochemical techniques such as genetic identification and antibody capture have provided easier and more sensitive platforms for detecting and diagnosing diseases as well as providing new fundamental insight into disease progression. These advancements have led to the development of new technology and assays capable of easy and early detection of pathogenicity as well as the enhancement of the drug discovery and development pipeline. While some studies have focused on treatment, many of these technologies have found initial success in laboratories as a precursor for clinical applications. This review highlights the current and future progress of microfluidic techniques geared toward the timely and inexpensive diagnosis of disease including technologies aimed at high-throughput single cell analysis for drug development. It also summarizes novel microfluidic approaches to characterize fundamental cellular behavior and heterogeneity.

Keywords: LFSAs; PDMS; high-throughput screening; lateral flow strip assays; microfluidic devices; point of care; polydimethylsiloxane; single cell analysis; µPADs.

Figure 1

Microfluidic devices for biomarker, human cell, bacteria, and virus detection. Each panel contains some representative devices reviewed within this section.

Figure 2

Microfluidic devices to study the cellular microenvironment provide insight on cell behavior. The in vivo microenvironment has cells migrating through the vasculature to form secondary tumors which induce angiogenesis. The heterogeneity of cells can be distinguished by clonal evolution and epithelial to mesenchymal transition. In vitro microfluidic devices can image 3D microenvironments that replicate the ECM to study cell migration and cell-to-cell communication using time-lapse imaging.

Figure 3

Single cell molecular profiling of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Heterogeneity exists at multiple layers within the cell that can be interrogated using the different technique shown to the right accompanied by an effective microfluidic platform and computational evaluation.

Figure 4

Microfluidic devices used for drug screening and characterization. Drug discovery devices utilize varying levels of cell aggregation, requiring differences in platform design as shown by the examples above. The result is a suite of devices with different geometries and applications to accommodate this differing range of on-chip cell population sizes.